12.4 War Crimes and Their Punishment

War crimes — the jus in bello grave breaches' criminalization: individual liability (commander and soldier alike). The architecture: The grave breaches regime (GC I–IV): wilful killing, torture, inhuman treatment, unlawful deportation, hostage-taking, unjustified destruction — with the aut dedere aut judicare obligation (universal jurisdiction's seed); The Hague tradition's catalogue: prohibited weapons, perfidy, pillage, attacks on civilians; The Rome Statute (1998), Article 8: the modern codification — grave breaches + the Hague catalogue + the non-international armed conflict crimes (Common Article 3's criminalization: murder, mutilation, cruel treatment, hostage-taking, sentencing without process); the ICC's jurisdictional conditions (complementarity; state consent or Council referral); The punishment's fora: national courts (universal jurisdiction — the Filártiga and Pinochet lines; the immunities counterweight — Unit 7); the ICC; the hybrid tribunals (ICTY/ICTR; Sierra Leone; Cambodia); Command responsibility: the commander's liability for the forces' crimes known and not prevented or repressed (Yamashita's line); superior orders' non-defence (the manifest- unlawfulness limit).